Lichen Ramalina bourgeana

Appearance

Thallus: fruticulous, greenish gray, erect, formed of robust, rigid strips, little or not branched, 2-80 mm wide and 1-14 cm long, having the appearance of a flower with overlapping petals; very clearly (strongly) cross-linked pleated strips on both sides, with warts / papillae, without pseudocyphellae.
Presence of discontinuous chondroids under the cortex and in the medulla. The chondroid formations consist of hyphae with thick walls, arranged longitudinally, ± intimately welded together to form a resistant zone.

Photosymbiont: Trebouxia.

Chemistry: medulla K-, P-, presence of salazinic, usnic and bourgeanic acids (CCM by Françoise Lohézic-Le Devehat, 2015, unpublished).

Apothecia: broad, subterminal, marginal, with a reticulate-costulate margin.

Uniseptate spores, slightly curved, 10-12 x 3-5 μm.

Naming

1. Desmazieria bourgeana (Mont. ex Nyl.) Follmann, Philippia 3: 86 (1976)
2. Niebla bourgaeana (Mont. ex Nyl.) Bowler & J.E. Marsh, Lichen Flora of the Greater Sonoran Desert Region 2: 370 (2004)
3. Niebla bourgeana (Mont. ex Nyl.) Rundel & Bowler, Mycotaxon 6 (3): 498 (1978)

Habitat

Habitat: on siliceous and volcanic rock of the coast or not far, more rarely on dead wood or corticultural. Calcifuge, heliophilous species, at or near the coast.